THE CHANCES of another disastrous round of voting in Afghanistan’s presidential race increased dramatically yesterday after the country’s election authority defied international pressure to cut the number of polling centres in order to reduce fraud.
To the fury of United Nations officials in Kabul, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced that it planned to open 155 more polling stations – up from 6,167 to 6,322 – than during the first vote on August 20th, despite repeated claims by the UN that there would be a reduction.
Ever since an official inquiry uncovered almost a million fraudulent votes cast in favour of the president, Hamid Karzai, the country’s western backers have insisted fewer centres would be opened in the run-off next Saturday.
But the IEC said assurances by Afghanistan’s security chiefs that conditions had improved in some areas of the country allowed for the opening of more centres.
In the first round, polling stations operated in areas that were so insecure election monitors were unable to deter wholesale ballot-stuffing.
UN staff said the IEC decision meant voting would still take place in areas where fraud was known to have been committed first time around or in areas where almost no one turned out to vote.
A western diplomat closely involved in organising the vote said the news was a “punch in the stomach because everything we asked them to do they rejected”.
He said it had shattered morale among election workers, already at a low ebb after six UN workers involved in election preparations were killed by a Taliban hit squad in Kabul on Wednesday.
Despite claims by Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to the region, that fraud would be reduced in the second round, election observers in Kabul believe a clean vote is impossible.
"It's going to be a fraudulent election, we can't kid ourselves on that," one diplomat said. "The only thing that could stop it now would be if the international community as a whole decided to distance themselves from this election, and that's not going to happen." – ( Guardianservice)